Paul The Apostle Part 4

Paul the apostle:

Part 4.

Barjesus also known as Elymas a Jewish magician and false prophet was found on the island of Crete. Saul and Barnabas found this sorcerer who was deputy to the proconsul Sergius Paulus. Barjesus hearing of their teaching instinctively hated the apostles and their message because of the influence they had over Sergius Paulus.

Paul denounces Elymas in a most remarkable way, declaring against him God’s sentence of temporarily blindness, “Thou shalt be blind, not seeing the sun for a season. And immediately there came upon him a mist and a darkness.”

Saul now becomes know as Paul! There is no reason not to believe that from his childhood he bore the name of Paul. If this is so, he would have been called Saul among the Jews, and Paul among the Gentiles. The conversion of Sergius Paulas may be said to be the beginning of Paul work among the Gentiles. Up to this point their public addresses were confined to the Jewish synagogues; but this was soon to change.

From the Island of Crete, Paul and the others set sail for the mainland arriving at Perga. Here Mark failed Paul and returned to Jerusalem, he than traveled to Antioch where a most memorable moment in the history can be marked concerning the preaching of the gospel to the Gentiles.

They went into the Synagogue on the Sabbath day and sat down. It contained Jews and with them proselytes, and those Gentiles who worshipped the God of the Jews. What happened here was to reoccur many times after, and in many other places he was to travel.

In the Synagogue the apostles sat with the Jews while the law and the Prophets were read. After the reading, the rulers of the synagogue sent for them as both strangers and brothers to speak.

Paul stood and beckoning with his hand than spoke. The speech is given in Acts 13:16, and must have produced a strong impression because those Jews who heard, now asked the apostles to repeat their message on the next Sabbath.

During the week, so much interest had been spread by Paul’s teaching, that on the next Sabbath, “almost the whole city came together to hear the Word of God.” It was the concern of the Gentiles which appears to have first alienated the minds of the Jews from what they had heard, they now being filled with envy! The eagerness of the Gentiles to hear may have confirmed the Jews instinctive apprehensions.

The Jewish envy once aroused became a power of deadly hostility to the gospel; and these Jews at Antioch began to oppose literally the words which Paul spoke. This new opposition brought out new action on the part of the apostles. Rejected by the Jews, they became bold and outspoken, now turned to the Gentiles.

From this point on Paul and Barnabas knew this to be their new commission, not in a lesser way to present their message to the Jews first, but, in the absence of an adequate Jewish medium they turned directly to the Gentiles. This expansion of the gospel brought with is many new difficulties and dangers. 

In Antioch, as in every city in which they traveled, the unbelieving Jews used their influence among the Gentiles, and especially with the women of the higher class to persuade the authorities and the people to persecute the apostles and to drive them from their cities. With their own spirits raised, Paul moved on to Iconium, where the things which beset them at Antioch were repeated; therefore the apostles moved on.

Now in Lystra and Derby they had to deal with uncivilized Gentiles. At Lystra the healing of a cripple took place, the narrative of which runs parallel to the account of the similar act done by Peter and John at the gate of the temple. Therefore the same truth was to be conveyed to the people of Jerusalem, and to the Gentiles at Lycaonia.

This miracle of healing was received by the Gentiles, and in this, they took the apostles for gods, calling Barnabas Zeus (Jupiter,) and Paul, who was the chief speaker as Hermes (Mercury.) This mistake was followed up by their attempt to offer sacrifices to them.

Although the people of Lystra were ready to worship Paul and Barnabas, the repulse by the apostles to be worshipped provoked an idolatrous instinct in them. And because of this they allowed themselves to be persuaded into hostility by the Jews at Antioch to attack Paul with stones, and after so doing, they believed they had killed him.

Obviously God was not finished with Paul so he revived. And as the disciples stood about him, Paul stood and returned to the city. The next day Paul left with Barnabas, and went to Derbe, than Lystra and so on to Iconium and Antioch. In order to establish the churches in these Gentile cities, they appointed elders for the task. So they returned home to Antioch where they told others of their successes and especially of God having opened the door of faith to the Gentiles” And so the First Missionary Journey ended.

Phillip LaSpino  www.seekfirstwisdom.com